Whether enjoying a drive through the city or taking a walk through the woods during autumn, your eyes will feast on a spectacular seasonal palette of colors. Each of the below words describes a more precise shade of color than just saying an item is brown, orange, red, or yellow.
Amber is a dark orange yellow that is yellower, lighter, and stronger than topaz. Fossils of insects and plants have been found in this hard yellowish to brownish translucent resin. This resin is used to make jewelry and other ornamental objects.
insects in baltic amber, wikimedia commons
Auburn is a moderate brown that is yellower and duller than toast brown, lighter and slightly yellower than tobacco, paler and slightly yellower than bay, redder and slightly lighter and stronger than chestnut brown, and redder, lighter, and slightly stronger than coffee.
auburn hair, wikimedia commons
Carmine is a purplish-red pigment. This red is made from a dye obtained from the dried bodies of insects. Somehow it is fitting to use this as a color during the fall months.
carmine, wikimedia commons
Carnelian red is a moderate reddish orange that is yellower and lighter than flamingo and yellower and paler than crab apple. It can be used to describe leaves having a reddish-orange or brownish-red color, like the colors often found in the carnelian quartz.
Crimson is a deep, slightly bluish red. Like scarlet, it has come to be associated with sin. Isaiah 1:18 says: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
This red is made from a dye obtained from the dried bodies of insects. Somehow that makes it logical to use crimson is used as a color during the spooky fall months.
webtreats deep crimson, flickr
Feuille morte comes to us from the French language and means “dead leaf.” It is a brownish orange that is deeper and slightly redder than leather, yellower and deeper than spice, and yellower and deeper than gold pheasant. It is the color of dead leaves in autumn. It is also called autumn leaf, dead leaf, foliage brown, leather lake, oakleaf brown, philamot, and withered leaf.
feuille morte, pixabay
Gamboge is a strong yellow that is redder and less strong than yolk yellow or light chrome yellow. The name of the color refers to a gum resin from southeast Asian trees that is used as a yellow pigment in art and as a purgative in medicine. The resin is orangish brown until it is crushed into powder and turns a bright yellow.
Maroon is a dark red that is yellower and duller than cranberry, average garnet, or average wine and duller and slightly yellower than pomegranate. This name for this dark red color comes from the Spanish word for chestnut.
maroon, wikimedia commons
Is there anyone out there that doesn’t associate pumpkins and their color that varies from a deep robust orange to a light bright orange hue with autumn. Just as pumpkin-flavored foods and beverages are abundant during the fall, so are items that are pumpkin orange.
pumpkins, public domain
Russet makes me think of potatoes. The late 18th century is when this color became the name of a popular potato. A popular color of the fall, russet is a strong brown that is duller and slightly redder than rust, paler and slightly redder than average copper brown, and redder and deeper than gold brown.
1978 Russet Brown Triumph Dolomite Spring, wikimedia commons
Sepia is a dark grayish yellowish brown that is stronger and slightly yellower than seal and stronger and slightly yellower and lighter than otter. Today it is best known as the name for the brownish tone that makes photographs look vintage.
Its hues can be found in autumn leaves as well as in the ocean. The ocean? This word was originally used to describe the cuttlefish, a relation of the octopus and the squid. When frightened, the cuttlefish releases and inky secretion. Painters in the 19th century used this secretion to create a rich brown color.
sepia landscape, North Sea, pixabay
Isaiah 1:18 says: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Here, scarlet is used to describe sexual immorality as it is in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Scarlet was originally a high-quality cloth. This cloth was normally dyed a bright red, so scarlet became associated with that color. Scarlet describes the bright reds of autumn.
scarlet rose, wikipedia
If there are any other colors that you associate with autumn besides the ones in this article, please feel free to let me know about them in the comments and I’ll do my best to add them.
Writing Prompts:
Write a story featuring one or more of the above colors and mention at least one of the colors in the title.
Decide on a color that has never been associated with autumn and come up with a reason why it needs to represent the fall. Write a story around it.
Two new colors here for me, although I would have never have thought to classify Russet as a color. Could have used this when I wrote The Color of Cold and Ice.
And, been walking out in the woods, enjoyed the fall colors.
I never thought of russet as a color either, and I don’t think I had never seen it used in a book. But it was used in a book I just finished reading yesterday. Could be that it just jumped out at me because I learned it could be used as a color . . .
I see these beautiful fall colors each day when I walk my dogs. I don’t think I’ll get to see them today though. It is raining and is supposed to rain all day.